It’s difficult to escape the idea that the bottom of the barrel is being scraped.
The “Aria for strings” is described as a “world première recording”, but proves
to be so only in this form. This early piece was later gathered into the Suite
for Strings and Organ. We are told that Di Vittorio’s “transcription” is “based
on the original manuscript and hand-written parts”. But, if these latter have
been faithfully reproduced with a minimum of essential tidying for practical
performance purposes, I call this “editing”. “Transcription” implies a more
radical, even creative intervention, so what has Di Vittorio actually done?
Leaving this aside, we have an agreeable piece of romanticized baroque. Di
Vittorio gives it plenty of romantic rubato but it seems to cry out for lush
Stokowski-style strings. Or else, as Respighi seemed to realize, the presence
of an underpinning organ to give it a certain individuality.

The other “world première”, the Violin Concerto, is not to be confused with
the later violin concertos, “Concerto all’antica” (1908) and “Concerto gregoriano”
(1921), which occasionally crop up. Again, there is some ambiguity in the
notes. We read that “Respighi had completed the first two movements and begun
the third movement in piano reduction, with only a few measures orchestrated”.
This, if I am not being more than usually obtuse, could mean that two movements
plus the beginning of a third were composed in piano reduction, and a few
measures of one of them orchestrated, or it could mean that the first two
movements were completed, orchestration included, and the finale was begun
in piano reduction and just a few bars of it orchestrated. In the Italian
version of the notes, which claim to be translated from the English, we read
that “In the original manuscript of this concerto, Respighi had completed
the first two movements and had put his hand to the third movement only in
its piano reduction, orchestrating its first bars”. This seems to allow the
possibility that the third movement, in its piano reduction, was actually
complete. I won’t go into all the discrepancies between the English and Italian
versions of the notes as to what Di Vittorio has done, or may have done, to
complete the work. I will only point out that, according to the English version,
“Respighi’s conclusion to the first movement foreshadows the master’s later
colourful orchestration of arguably his greatest work, Pines of Rome.”
In Italian this comes out as “the first movement [i.e. all of it] is, in the
light of the composer’s development, a clear foreshadowing of that mastery
of orchestral colours which – with trills and fanfares – we find in his most
famous work, Pini di Roma”. Rather like the difference between editing
and transcribing.

Taking the music on its own terms, the first movement has an engaging freshness,
with carolling wind at the beginning sounding a little like Nielsen – not
that Respighi could have known that in 1903. I must say the music sounds more
individual in the purely orchestral passages than when the violin enters.
Since Di Vittorio has apparently “enhanced” the orchestration, the individuality
may be his rather than Respighi’s. The slow movement is considerably the longest,
a mainly rapt meditation with an atmosphere that may sound slightly Celtic,
at least to British ears. The finale, however you interpret the liner notes,
does not convince as pure Respighi. It sounds more like the sort of post-modern,
neo-romantic, neo-diatonic manner which has become popular in recent years.
It also sounds bombastic and vulgar in a way that the previous two movements
do not. However, since Respighi could be both of these things at times, this
in itself does not disqualify it as a plausible reconstruction of Respighi’s
original intentions. Those more convinced by its Respighian credentials than
I am must surely admit, though, that it sounds like Respighi at his worst.
Possibly, a better way to gain a new Respighi piece for the repertoire would
have been to edit just the slow movement as it stood, with some such title
as “Romantic Poem for violin and orchestra”. Laura Marzadori’s excellent performance
suggests that, in this form, the music might have some future.

The Suite for Strings is described on the track list as “revised” by Di Vittorio.
The liner notes (in both languages) refer to a “transcription”. No attempt
is made to define its original form or the degree of intervention needed to
make it performable. This is not indicated as a world première recording,
so presumably at least one string ensemble has managed to play it without
Di Vittorio’s assistance. The music is agreeable rather than memorable. Pace
the liner notes, I should have thought that the remarkable thing is how
little it presages the far more original writing of the third set of
“Ancient Airs and Dances”. Di Vittorio’s careful moulding of the slower movements
may be admired, but a little more zip in the faster ones would not have done
any harm.

The liner notes rightly point out that, while Respighi claimed “Rossiniana”
as mere orchestrations of original piano pieces by Rossini, in reality he
used the original music simply as starting points for his own imagination.
Compared with everything else on the disc, this work has a creative vitality
and a sound world that mark it out as wholly individual. If it is less celebrated
than the Rossini-inspired “La boutique fantasque” this is probably on account
of its darker hues, revolving around the starkly magnificent “Lamento”. Di
Vittorio’s handling of this is very fine. The final “Tarantella” could do
with a bit more unbuttoned “slancio”. This is not in itself a matter of tempo.
Di Vittorio seems unable or unwilling to challenge the players to give all
they’ve got and more, it all remains rather comfortable. Ensemble is not always
precise here, either.

Naxos already has a much-praised version of “Rossiniana” under JoAnn
Falletta. I don’t know this, but the situation seems clear. Respighi completists
will want the new material on the present CD. General collectors whose Respighi
so far extends only to the Roman Trilogy will do better with Falletta’s couplings
of “Church Windows” and “Brazilian Impressions”. Much older versions of “Rossiniana”
under Beecham
and Ansermet
may still be available. The sound on the new disc is clear and close.